The Tudor Fair Blog
Tudor Book Bundle Giveaway
To celebrate my partnership with Tudor Times, I’m running a book bundle giveaway! This time it’s historical fiction! Check it out and enter here, and good luck! https://www.englandcast.com/giveaways/tudor-fiction-book-bundle/
Tudor Times Partnership!
LONDON, March 15, 2016— Tudor England just became a bit more digital as Tudor Times, a UK repository of information on the Tudor and Stewart period, has teamed up with the Renaissance English History Podcast, a leading history podcast, to create original content. Starting in April, each Tudor Times Person…
How to Self-Publish a Book in a Week
Yep, in case anyone is wondering, I do indeed have a lot of creative projects on the go right now. It’s been a study in project management keeping them all going, to be honest, and I’m truly glad that some of them are wrapping up soon. It will free up…
Women’s History Month Episodes
March is Women’s History Month, and seeing as how I am a woman, I have managed to put together a pretty good collection of episodes on women (go figure). I remember when I was a kid, fascinated by history, it always seemed like we only ever talked about the men.…
Why you should become intimate with Dido & Aeneas
Between 1684 and 1688 English music, opera, and music history was changed when Purcell wrote Dido & Aeneas, one of England’s earliest operas written by the Grandaddy of English Baroque. Now, 350 years later, it is still alive and well as a new recording by the Armonico Consort demonstrates, and…
Alison Weir on Tudor Feminism, Norah Lofts, and the Cult of Anne Boleyn
About 2o years ago I read Alison Weir’s Six Wives of Henry VIII. I remember starting it, laying in my bed in my attic bedroom when it was snowing outside. I was immediately hooked on this saga of drama and the way lives could be forever changed because of the inability…
Self Publishing and Blog Tours
I’m going on tour y’all! Blog tour, that is. I’ve ponied up the money to hire a blog tour coordinator. Later on in March I will be on a blog tour that’s being coordinated by Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours. It’s a company that specializes in, as the name would…
Music for Impressing a King: Taverner’s Missa Corona Spinea, Wolsey, and Henry VIII
In March 1527 Henry VIII and his wife Catherine of Aragon visited Cardinal Wolsey’s new foundation – Cardinal’s College – in Oxford. John Taverner, one of the most famous composers of his time, was commissioned to write an appropriately stunning piece of choral music that would wow the King and…
Five Things You Didn’t Know About Mary I (but probably should)
Mary Tudor (aka Mary I, aka Bloody Mary) is the Person of the Month over on the Tudor Times website. I did a podcast episode on her about a year and a half ago, and I wanted to revisit this much-maligned woman. So here, for your reading pleasure – some random…
From Draft to Shelf in 6 Weeks
A few weeks ago I was reading a book in the bathtub. This isn’t a new occurrence. Reading in the bathtub is one of my favorite luxuries. What happened during that particular bath, though, was kind of a big deal. I’ve been ruminating for a while on different projects I…
Five Great Albums to Start an Early English Music Journey
It’s been just over 20 years since I first became hooked on early English choral music through singing Byrd’s Ave Verum Corpus in my high school chamber choir. I talk about that piece a lot – it sums up for me this struggle of humanity; how much do you conform vs…
5 Key Takeaways on the Rise of the Tudor Navy
I’ve been on a bit of a Boat Craze over on the Renaissance English History Podcast for the past few months. I did an episode on the Rise of the Tudor Navy, the Iron Industry of the Weald (which helped propel the navy forward with the blast iron furnace that…